"You've changed." Uta suddenly stated out of nowhere causing Akane to jump in the chair was sitting in. Akane was only about five years younger than him, he'd known her since they were small children, her dark red hair contained in a messy high ponytail behind her head.
She snorted through her nose and folded he arms over her chest, "I've changed? How so?" she asked him, she crossed one leg over her other still dressed in her high school uniform.
He cocked his head to the side regarding her, "You seem to be more tame." He remarked turning back to his sketch book while working on her mask rounding about her and observing her face.
"Tame?" she repeated her temper flaring, "Me tame? Right, you do realise that I still rip my meals limb from limb while they're alive right?" she remarked not too impressed at being called tame. She thought back to her last meal, her relationship with humans was complicated and difficult to understand even for herself, she liked human she honestly did but she couldn't help but eat them and her hunger made her overly cruel at times. But some humans deserved it at least in her mind so she made peace with herself over that.
"I wasn't really referring to your hunting Akane, I was referring to you outside of that ever since you've started attending that high school you've become…" he trailed off not quite sure of the word to finish it, he looked up to see the young ghoul glaring at him her eyes burning with anger. Akane was usually really good at keeping her temper in check, but Uta found that around people she spent a lot of time with she'd snap at them. Uta was one of the few people from her childhood that was still alive and that she hung around with, so him more than others had to deal with this abrasive and at times rude personality.
But he knew she didn't really mean it, she was just stressed out and had no way to take it out properly, no one was ever really there for her or looked out for her. In some aspects it reminded Uta of Nishiki, the two had a lot in common but would never get along they're always butt heads with one another.
"Different." He finished, he'd known her for a long time they did come from district four. She was younger then him.
Akane never had a family, her father left her mother and her mother was killed by doves. But Akane had always been a tough kid, she learned tricks to eat. When she was too small to hunt she'd be found waiting patiently off to the side while adults ate, she didn't even care if she had to lick the ground to get food. Adults didn't mind her presence, she wasn't really intruding on their territory, if anything she was good for cleaning up scraps that could get them caught, or being on the scene the longest and being the last one to leave made her the most likely to get caught.
That was actually how Uta had met her, she just stood hiding in the shadows watching him eat, he only noticed her by how her red eyes glowed in the dark watching him. He ate to his heart's contentment glancing up to see her still waiting not having moved a muscle. He dropped the remainder of the body and made it appear he left. In reality he just rounded the corner and stopped, he could hear snapping sounds and peeked around the corner to see her desperately chewing on the scrapes desperate for sustenance. He'd see her from time and again watching him eat but really only got to know one another when she began to hunt.
She might've been smaller and physically weaker than Uta but it didn't make her any less savage, as a child she used her size and age to lure other children away, "You've stopped eating women and children." Uta mentioned, the last time they fought against one another for practice they were close to even. Akane acknowledged the fact if they'd meant it she'd have been killed, Uta didn't say anything but he knew that even though she couldn't kill him she'd do some serious and potentially permanent damage before dying.
She scoffed, "So what? I don't like how they taste, kids are dirty and women wear perfume that stuff tastes horrible." She countered, "Anyways kids are more wary of me now that I'm in high school, it's getting to difficult to lure them away."
She leaned back in the chair lifting a leg in the air her skirt ridding up her leg, "Perverts are the easiest prey to lure away right now." She sighed and then a smile cracked out on her features, "and they have the best faces when they realise you're not some little school girl that they're going to be taking advantage of." She smiled remembering the last pervert she managed to lure away into an empty alley.
"Why'd you start going to high school? You never went to elementary school." Uta commented since she was bringing up the topic of school.
She shrugged, "I have to learn how to blend in." she responded to him in a bored tone. He wondered how she got in let alone figured things out on her own.
"What'd you use as a last name?" he asked her knowing Akane didn't remember hers.
She shrugged, "The first one I learned how to spell correctly, Tanaka." She replied looking bored playing with the green hair clip in her hair, "Why do I need a new mask Uta? Why couldn't you just repair or remake the one I already have?" she whined kicking her feet in the air from her chair.
"Because you're not the same you… you're someone different." He stated, "No allergies?" he asked.
She sighed leaning far back in the chair her legs still swinging, "No Uta. What do you think I spontaneously developed an allergy to something? Do ghouls even have allergies?" she responded to him in a playfully whinny tone.
"A boyfriend?" he asked her.
She paused in the swinging of her legs and glanced away from him embarrassed a red blush on her cheeks, "No." there was a long drawn out moment of silence, "There aren't any decent guys around." She stated defensively, if Uta were more expressive he would've smiled he knew that she used to have a puppy dog crush on him and was terrible at hiding it. Lately though he couldn't tell if she still liked him that way, in fact her visits were becoming fewer and farther apart.
"Almost done." He commented finishing up the sketch, "Here." He stated turning the sketch to her.
He watched her eyes widen in surprise and a smile spread across her features, "It's so pretty!" she breathed out her fingers brushing along the edges of the paper. It was a white mask, with the areas around the eyes darkened, paint would be splattered across it-Akane assumed it'd be red paint it was after all her favourite colour and it'd look like blood. There was a twisted smile on the mask with jagged fangs bursting from the smile.
It was a truly horrifying mask, Akane loved it, "Only the best for the Red Moon." She commented to Uta, "I'll be back to pick it up along with that jar of eyeballs for you, I've been collecting them for you for a while. But it's hard I've got this friend into the occult you know, he has weird green hair." She jumped off the chair.
"Thanks Uta." She finished retrieving her bag and heading over to the door of his shop.
"Come back on the fifteenth to pick it up will you?" Uta responded.
"Will do! Got something to tell you on the fifteenth anyways!" She said waving exaggeratedly before pushing the door open and disappearing into the dark of the night.